Hydrasynth Desktop

Product Information

The Mutants can also generate their own waveforms in both FM and Sync modes so that you do not have to use another oscillator. The architecture is represented as an interactive panel of 26 Module buttons, each an entry point for further pages. A second display provides patch names, envelope and waveform graphics and an oscilloscope that reflects the real-time output. As for the performance capabilities, The Hydrasynth Desktop / Rack has 24 polyphonic pressure touchpads so that you can play the unit without needing to connect a keyboard or other controller. Scrolling on, you'll encounter usable brass, strings, bells, basses and arpeggios — sounds that wouldn't seem out of place on a synth from the 1990s.

Are there productivity hacks, or shortcut keys of some sort that make things go faster (ie: like the holding down a button while pressing another to make a mod matrix link)? The first two are capable of wave scanning through user-created wavetables while all three can play one of 219 waveforms. I did initially wonder whether a couple of hundred waves would be enough, but since the Hydrasynth offers myriad ways to twist, squash, mash and trash them, it should be ages before you try every combination. Touch any key briefly, and a free-running envelope will progress through all its timed stages without further intervention.The Wavelist Edit page simplifies the selection process in various ways, and if you have no particular plan to start with, the Random button will choose waveforms for you. Analogue Outputs for CV, Gate, Clock and 2x definable controllers make this Synthesizer the control centre of a connected Modular System.

The VOICE parameters give you access to play modes, analogue feel, voice panning and many other features. I particularly like the squared-off black notes, which lend it a more piano-like feel and assurance. While there are a host of worthy bread-and-butter patches, very few give a sense of how strange and 'out there' the Hydrasynth can be. By registering the supplied licence in your account with a particular software vendor you are creating a permanent record of ownership so please be advised to make a note of your login details at the time of registration.Each step of this 'almost sequencer' is programmed by those ever-present encoders, with a smoothing option if necessary. It's The One-Eyed King and it will reign supreme until someone has the decency and cojones of deposing it. Hydrasynth envelopes have continuously variable shapes for every stage, so if you need a shallow logarithmic attack, a steep exponential decay and a long linear release, this synth can deliver them. There's so many ways to modulate the mutants as well, but it can take a bit to figure out what works best. There could be a number of reasons for this, including the filter modelling, effects, and analogue-like touches such as filter drive and the Analog Warm parameter, which unsurprisingly dials in analogue-style warmth.

Oscillator Sync offers synchronisation to any oscillator and it's fitted with a couple of novel extras: Window and Ratio. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Their polyphonic pressure implementation is pretty thorough, and includes user tailoring of parameters such as delay, onset time, fade and release, to reduce bounce, jitter and so on. Amending or starting a patch from new is a total breeze, I find myself able to put very 10 complex patches together in under an hour.The thing I hated about some of the other syths I've used is not being able to see the values of settings when loading a preset, this is not the case with Hydrasynth, everything is shown with the LEDs around the encoders and on the screens. I mean you bought this proudly deep and digital synth, end up disappointed that it doesn't perform that well doing mostly basic VA stuff in terms of UI and sounds, and not only do you feel this is something reviewers should have warned you about, it's something the manufacturer should try and address. With 32 user definable modulation routings, you will have plenty of ways to use the 29 modulation sources and 155 modulation destinations. As Darcey explained, “(Product Manager) Dominic (Au) and I come out of modular backgrounds so being able to route anything to anything was in our DNA, so to say. Depending on the model, the sound might be affected to varying degrees by the sample rate, lookup table resolution and DAC distortion, and this can add some apparent brightness and aliasing to the sound.

I don't know how accurate the Threeler filters are, but I liked the band-pass mode in particular; some of its cutoff and resonance combinations give strange, buzzy but interesting results. Also love seeing the waveform morph in real time, though I guess that's only so useful in practice, maybe the screen real estate has more practical uses at times, but sure looks nice doing that. To understand some of the excitement, it's worth stepping back and pondering what makes polyphonic aftertouch so enduringly fascinating. The Hydrasynth Desktop boasts 8-voice polyphony, ‘Mutator’ waveshaping, and a 32-slot modulation matrix to deliver a genuinely revolutionary, virtual analogue synthesizer, for the revolutionary music producer.One problem with many desktop or rack synths is that you usually have to connect them to an external controller to play them. You can also modulate most of the parameters in the arpeggiator so imagine using LFO’s, Envelopes, Polyphonic Aftertouch or the Ribbon controller to modify your arpeggios in real time. Those markets tend to be more desktop-centric and less about keyboards so we pushed to get both versions launched at the same time. The voices in a Yamaha DX7 all originate from two chips - the YM21280 and an envelope generator (YM21290). full-fledged Oscillators draw their basic material from 219x Waveforms, with Oscillators 1 and 2 also providing Master Wave Scanning, which allows up to 8x Waveforms to be crossfaded or morphed.